AFC Wimbledon boss Terry Brown fears his side may have to contain non-league football's most potent strike duo on Saturday with only one first choice defender.

Goalkeeper Andy Little (broken finger), Luke Garrard (knee) and Michael Haswell (knee) are already ruled out of this weekend's FA Trophy visit of Blue Square Premier high-flyers Torquay United.

Jason Goodliffe faces a late fitness test on a sore hamstring that could leave just Antony Frankie' Howard - back from a three match suspension - as the sole regular in Brown's back four.

Versatile Jake Leberl (shin) and midfielder Mark Beard (knee) are on the treatment table, while hotshot Jon Main is cup-tied for a game he would have missed anyway after breaking his foot in Saturday's 2-2 draw with his former club Tonbridge Angels.

Meanwhile, the Gulls expect to have former Don Roscoe Dsane and ex-Kingstonian striker Tim Sills, the club's leading scorer, in their line-up for the biggest game in AFC's six-year history.

And Brown has admitted the hitmen - whom he managed in his spell in charge at Aldershot - have the potential to wreck their hopes of making the fourth round.

He said: "They are an experienced and talented front two - probably the most potent strike force in non-league football at the moment. It is my job to work out a way of stopping them.

"It is going to be even more difficult without our first choice defenders. Without them, we have conceded seven goals in our past three games.

"You can sometimes have four or five of your squad out and get away with it but, with seven regulars on the sidelines, it will be tough.

"They are the best team we will face all year but, on our day, we can be just as potent. We have nothing to lose."

Brown's team have played 12 games since December 22 and he believes his stretched resources are a symptom of the strain taking its toll.

They hardly go into their big game in the best frame of mind, Tuesday night's 1-0 home defeat by Boreham Wood being their fourth game without a win.

Dsane and Sills spearheaded Brown's Shots to the brink of a return to the Football League in 2004, when his side lost a Conference play-off final on penalties to Shrewsbury Town.

And the Kingsmeadow chief is hoping his shoot-out woes don't return to haunt him.

He added: "My track record in play-offs and penalties isn't too good if you think of the Shrewsbury game and then against Carlisle United.

"We have lost two more to Whyteleafe and Horsham this season, so if it goes that far I won't be too confident."